Thursday, August 22, 2013

Kids are NOT College and Career Ready

Based on the composite score on math, science, English, and reading only 20.9% are college ready. But that is the average - only 5% of African-American and 14% of Hispanic students are college ready - that is horrific.

As for the subjects themselves - the numbers are higher than the overall composite

Math - 14% of African-American and 30% of Hispanic students are college ready

Science - 10% of African-American and 21% of Hispanic students are college ready

College-readiness benchmarks were developed by ACT to predict whether a student has a 75 percent chance of earning a C or higher or a 50 percent chance of earning a B or higher in a typical first-year college course. Students this year did best in English, with 64 percent achieving the standard. Forty-four percent met it in both reading and math, and 36 percent hit the benchmark in science. Just 26 percent hit the benchmark in all four subjects in 2013. (The English test measures punctuation, grammar, sentence structure, organization, and rhetorical skills. The reading test measures reading comprehension.)

We are not closing the achievement gap if these are the numbers of college and career ready students. It is NMSI's focus and we will continue to push until this improves.